Figure 8.

A simplified example of two-dimensional feature space. Descriptors are used as coordinates to map the characteristics of each cell catalogued in a database to a position in two-dimensional feature space (“known” cell types). The position in feature space that characterizes the cell to be cross-referenced is also plotted (“unknown” cell type). “Distances” between the unknown and known cell types are computed. A list of similar cell types and their associated reports are then generated in an order indicating their distance from the unknown cell type.